Recent Posts:

Eric Wesoff: February 5, 2009, 10:58 PM

It’s Thursday in Palo Alto and that means there’s a cleantech talk being given at the Palo Alto Research Center. Tonight’s talk was given by Dr. Rosa Yang, VP of Technology Innovation at EPRI.
EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, defines itself as an independent non-profit that does energy and environmental research. But the deeper truth is that EPRI is funded by their members and their members are, to a great extent, the energy producers in the U.S. -- the utilities. Most American utilities are coal, natural gas and nuclear-based, and they will be slow to change their energy mix.
Yang didn’t debate the reality of climate change and seemed to reluctantly...

Michael Kanellos: February 5, 2009, 9:32 AM

Because it can't find adequate alternatives, Sweden's government has proposed a plan to get rid of a ban on new nuclear reactors and start building more of them.
The ban would reverse a 1980 law that called for Sweden to close its twelve nuclear reactors. Two were actually closed but no new ones were built. The plan has to be approved by Parliament first.
Global warming and carbon emissions are raising the profile of nuclear. Russia, the U.S. Finland, India, England and France all are building or considering new reactors. (France has long been an advocate.) In Ireland, policy makers have talked about ways of getting around that country's ban. It could build a transmission line...

Ucilia Wang: February 5, 2009, 8:28 AM

Two Congressmen have authored a bill that would require 25 percent of the electricity generated in the United States to come from renewable sources by 2025.

Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Todd Platts, R-Pa., introduced the American Renewable Energy Act on Wednesday. If passed, the legislation would take effect in 2012. Markey also introduced another bill that would require the nation to cut its power use by 15 percent by 2020. The reductions would result from setting new codes for buildings and appliances, and from utility-run or other programs that encourage conservation.

The lawmakers claim that the two bills together would create more than 500,000 jobs while saving people...